Concurrent access and transactions in a distributed file system

ABSTRACT

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a first set of file system objects included in performing a requested file system operation is identified in response to a request to perform a file system operation. An update intent corresponding to the requested file system operation is inserted into a data structure associated with each identified file system object. Each file system object corresponding to the corresponding data structure is modified as specified by the update intent in that data structure. After modifying the file system object corresponding to the corresponding data structure, the update intent is removed from that data structure.

CROSS REFERENCE TO OTHER APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 15/628,484 entitled CONCURRENT ACCESS AND TRANSACTIONS IN ADISTRIBUTED FILE SYSTEM filed Jun. 20, 2017, which is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/524,979, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,697,227entitled CONCURRENT ACCESS AND TRANSACTIONS IN A DISTRIBUTED FILE SYSTEMfiled Oct. 27, 2014, both of which are incorporated herein by referencefor all purposes.

BACKGROUND Field

Embodiments presented herein generally relate to distributed computing.More specifically, embodiments presented herein provide ahigh-performance distributed file system that provides concurrent accessand transaction safety.

Description of the Related Art

A distributed computing network system includes multiple computersystems which interact with one another to achieve a common goal. Thecomputer systems are networked to form a cluster. Computer systems inthe cluster may share different resources, such as data, storage,processing power, and the like.

An example of a distributed computing network system is a secondarystorage environment. A cluster of secondary storage systems may provideservices for primary storage systems. For instance, secondary storagesystems may provide backup, copy, and test and development services fordata residing in primary storage. The secondary storage cluster canexpose data backed up from the primary storage system to clientssystems, which can read or write data to the file system.

A distributed file system needs to support concurrent access to filesystem objects, e.g., files and directories, while also maintaining aconsistent state. When different nodes in the cluster may access thefile system concurrently (e.g., in response to read and write requestssent by clients), it is important that the file system remainconsistent. That is, updates to the file system performed by one nodeare visible to other nodes of the cluster. Further, consistency requirestolerance for node failures, such that if a node fails while performingan update to the file system, the incomplete file system operationstransactions need to be either completed or aborted.

SUMMARY

One embodiment presented herein provides a method for performing atransaction in a distributed file system. The method generally includesidentifying a first set of file system objects modified in performing afile system operation in response to a request to perform the filesystem operation. The method also includes inserting an update intentcorresponding to the requested file system operation into an inodeassociated with each identified file system object. The update intentspecifies an ordered sequence of inodes associated with the requestedfile system operation. For each inode, (i) either the inode or the filesystem object corresponding to the inode is modified according to theupdate intent in that inode, and (ii) the update intent is removed fromthat inode after the modification.

Another embodiment presented herein provides a computer-readable mediumstoring instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause theprocessor to perform an operation for performing a transaction in adistributed file system. The operation itself generally includesidentifying a first set of file system objects modified in performing afile system operation in response to a request to perform the filesystem operation. The operation also includes inserting an update intentcorresponding to the requested file system operation into an inodeassociated with each identified file system object. The update intentspecifies an ordered sequence of inodes associated with the requestedfile system operation. For each inode, (i) either the inode or the filesystem object corresponding to the inode is modified according to theupdate intent in that inode, and (ii) the update intent is removed fromthat inode after the modification.

Another embodiment provides a system having a processor and a memorystoring program code. The program code, when executed on the processor,performs an operation for performing a transaction in a distributed filesystem. The operation itself generally includes identifying a first setof file system objects modified in performing a file system operation inresponse to a request to perform the file system operation. Theoperation also includes inserting an update intent corresponding to therequested file system operation into an inode associated with eachidentified file system object. The update intent specifies an orderedsequence of inodes associated with the requested file system operation.For each inode, (i) either the inode or the file system objectcorresponding to the inode is modified according to the update intent inthat inode, and (ii) the update intent is removed from that inode afterthe modification.

Another embodiment provides a method for locking entities to be modifiedin an operation in a distributed file system. The method generallyincludes receiving a request to perform a file system operation. Therequest specifies one or more file system objects to be modified in adistributed file system managed by a cluster of nodes. A node-specificlock is requested on each of the file system objects. The node-specificlock prevents other nodes in the cluster from accessing the locked filesystem objects during the file system operation. Upon receiving thenode-specific locks on the file system objects, a process-specific lockis requested from a process-specific lock manager on each of the filesystem objects. The process-specific lock prevents other local processesfrom accessing the file system objects.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example computing environment, according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example secondary storage server, according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 3 illustrates an inode for an object in a distributed file system,according to one embodiment.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method for obtaining locks on file system objects,according to one embodiment.

FIG. 5 illustrates example of objects modified by a file systemoperation, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 6 illustrates a method for atomically updating file system objects,according to one embodiment.

FIG. 7 illustrates a method for committing or aborting a file systemtransaction left in an intermediate state due to a node failure,according to one embodiment.

FIG. 8 illustrates a node in a distributed file system, according to oneembodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments presented herein provide a high-performance distributed filesystem. The distributed file system is stored on a cluster of computingnodes. Each node can read and write to any file system object (e.g., afile or directory) and perform common file system operations, such ascopy, rename, delete, etc., in response to requests sent by clients. Forexample, in one embodiment, the distributed file system disclosed hereinmay be exposed to a client as an NFS mount point. In such case, thedistributed file system manages concurrency and consistency issuestransparently to an NFS client. Specifically, nodes of the cluster canperform file system operations requested by multiple clientsconcurrently and each node can process multiple requests concurrently.Further, the nodes in the cluster ensure that each file systemtransaction requested by a client that updates or modifies multiple filesystem objects is either completed or aborted.

In one embodiment, a two-level locking scheme allows file systementities (e.g., files and directories of the file system) to be accessedconcurrently. Specifically, when a node in the distributed clusterreceives a request to access the file system (e.g., to modify data, readdata, etc.), the node requests a node-level lock, referred to as a“ticket,” from a ticket service, for each file system object associatedwith a requested file system operation (e.g., a set of inodes). Theticket service is a distributed lock management service that issuestickets for file system entities to nodes of the cluster. A ticketprovides a node with shared or exclusive access to a given file systemobject. Once a ticket is obtained, the node can access files associatedwith that ticket. In addition to the cluster-level lock, i.e., theticket, a process operating on the file also requests a process-widelock for each file system object associated with the requested filesystem operation. A process-wide lock provides a process with shared orexclusive access to a given entity on that node. Once tickets andprocess-wide locks are obtained for each associated file system object,the node may perform a requested file system operation on the lockedobjects. Examples of operations include create operations (where thenode creates a file or directory) or delete operations (where the nodedeletes a file or directory from the file system). The tickets and locksallow the nodes to perform file system operations safely andconcurrently. For example, when acting as an NFS mount point, theprocess on the nodes can perform any file system operations requested byan NFS client.

In addition to addressing concurrency issues via the two-tiered lockingmechanism discussed above, the distributed file system also supportstransactions such that if a file system operation modifies multipleentities, the file system does not become inconsistent should a nodeperforming that operation crash before the changes can be completed. Inone embodiment, a process operating on the file stores an update intentin a structure used to describe attributes of that entity, such as aninode. As known, an inode is a data structure that describes a filesystem object, e.g., a file or directory. The update intent may includea unique identifier associated with the file system operation. Further,the update intent in an inode may specify each file system objectparticipating in the transaction. In addition, the list of file systemobjects is ordered according to the order the operations should beperformed to complete the file system operation.

After writing an update intent for a given transaction to the inodes,the process performs the transaction on each file system object affectedby the operation. After completing the operation specified in eachinode, the process removes the update intent from the inode.

Inserting an update intent prior to performing a transaction andremoving the update intent when finalizing the transaction ensures filesystem consistency, particularly in cases where a node fails during anystage of the transaction. In one embodiment, a node may complete orabort a transaction left in an intermediate state due to failure ofanother node performing the transaction.

For example, consider a case where a node performs a rename operationthat involves file system entities A, B, and C, where A is a sourcedirectory file handle, B is a destination directory file handle, and Cis a file handle to the file being renamed. Assume that the processexecuting in the node has inserted an update intent in inodescorresponding to entities A, B, and C describing the rename operation tobe performed. Further, assume that the node completes updating entity Abut crashes before (or while) finalizing entity B. At the point offailure, the inode for entity A no longer stores the update intentassociated with the rename operation, but file handles B and C stillhave an update intent because the node did not complete the renameoperation. When another node accesses entities B or C, the node detectsthat the file system handles have an update intent from the incompletetransaction.

In one embodiment, when a node detects an update intent in an inode, thenode can either complete or abort the incomplete transaction associatedwith that update intent. To so do, the node identifies the sequence ofinodes referenced by the update intent. Doing so allows the node todetermine which inodes were part of an incomplete transaction. Onceidentified (and after obtaining a ticket and lock on that set ofinodes), the node can determine whether the incomplete transactionshould be completed or abandoned.

To do so, the node evaluates which (if any) of the inodes store anupdate intent associated with the incomplete transaction (as identifiedusing a transaction-specific identifier in the update intent). If theoperation was not fully prepared at the time it was interrupted, thenone (or more) nodes at the end of the sequence will not store an updateintent. In such a case, the operation is abandoned and the update intentis simply removed from all the inodes associated with the transaction.If all of the inodes have an update intent, then the operation wasinterrupted after being fully prepared, but before being committed. Inthis case, the failed operation is rolled forward. If one (or more)nodes at the beginning of the sequence do not have an update intent,then the operation was interrupted after being prepared and after beingpartially performed by the nodes at the beginning of the sequence whichdo not have an update intent. In this case, the operation can becompleted by performing the operation specified by the update intent inthe relevant inodes at the end of the sequence.

Advantageously, the techniques described herein provide consistency in adistributed file system. The two-level locking scheme allows nodes toaccess and modify file system entities concurrently. Further, writing anupdate intent to inodes participating in a transaction provides a commitmechanism that does not rely on any centralized database or journalingtechniques to ensure transaction consistency. As a result, thedistributed file system disclosed herein may scale more efficiently thandistributed systems that maintain transaction databases and journals.

Note, embodiments are described below using a distributed secondarystorage system as a reference example of a cluster which exports adistributed file system to clients. However, one of ordinary skill inthe art will recognize that the distributed file system described hereinmay be adapted for use with a variety of distributed computing clusters.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example computing environment 100, according toone embodiment. As shown, the computing environment includes a primarystorage server 105 and a cluster 122. As shown, the cluster 122 includesmultiple computing servers 110 that host and manage a distributedservice (e.g., secondary storage services). The primary storage server105 and secondary storage servers 110 are each connected via a network120. The primary storage server 105 and secondary storage servers 110may provide storage for a data center.

In particular, the cluster 122 of secondary storage servers 110 form adistributed file system which provides backup storage and services tothe primary storage server 105. Illustratively, each secondary storageserver 110 (or “node”) of the distributed file system includes bridgecomponents 112 and data gathering components 114. The bridge components112 may provide software applications that allow external clients toaccess each node. The data gathering components 114 are generallyconfigured to retrieve data from primary storage server 105 (e.g., bycommunicating with the primary storage server 105 using a backupprotocol). Further, each node includes one or more hard disk drives(HDDs) 116 and solid-state drives (SSDs) 118 for storing data fromprimary storage server 105. The SSDs 118 increase the performancerunning secondary storage transactions, such as serial-writetransactions. In one embodiment, the distributed file system is theSnapFS® developed by Cohesity, Inc.

In one embodiment, distributed cluster 122 may expose backup data toapplications 127 on clients 125. For example, assume the distributedcluster 122 provides a backup of a file system on the primary storageserver 105. In such a case, the cluster 122 could create a snapshot of afile system on the primary storage server 105 every few minutes.Further, the cluster 122 could expose a clone of one of the snapshots toapplications 127. For example, the cluster 122 could export a clone asan NFS mount point (or SMB, CIFS, etc.), allowing the clients 125 tomount the snapshot over a directory in the local file system of theclient 125. In such a case, the bridge components 112 may respond torequests from clients 125 to perform NFS operations (or operations forSMB, CIFS, etc.) on the mounted directory (e.g., lookup, create, read,write, rename, remove, etc.). As described below, nodes 110 of thecluster 122 manage concurrent access to the clone made by NFS clientsusing both node level locks (tickets) and local process locks on inodestouched by a given file system operation. That is, a request from aclient 125 may be directed to any of the nodes 110. Additionally, thenodes 110 maintain a consistent distributed file system by writing anupdate intent to each inode participating in a given file systemoperation. Doing so allows the cluster 122 to maintain a consistent filesystem state, even when a node fails in the middle of a file systemoperation.

FIG. 2 further illustrates a secondary storage server 110, according toone embodiment. As shown, the secondary storage server 110 includesbridge components 112, data gathering components 114, and a nodeidentifier 205. The node identifier 205 is a distinct value that may bebased on the MAC address of the secondary storage server 110.

As stated, the data gathering components 114 communicate with primarystorage servers in the computing environment 100. Illustratively, thedata gathering components 114 may retrieve data from primary storageservers 201 and 202, where each primary storage server 201 and 202execute backup protocols such as recovery manager (RMAN) 203 andvStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP).

The secondary storage server includes a file system 210. The file system210, in conjunction with the file systems of other secondary storageservers in the cluster, forms a distributed system used to store backupdata from the primary storage services. For example, assume the bridgecomponents 112 receive a virtual machine disk (VMDK) file from thebackup data gathering components 114. In such a case, the bridgecomponents 112 writes the VMDK file to disk storage 160. In addition,file system metadata is stored in SSD 118. However, as a VMDK file canbe quite large (e.g., terabytes), bridge components 112 may store theVMDK file as set of smaller blobs (binary large object) files managed bya blob manager, each having a set of chunks (e.g., approximately 8 KBeach). Backup data below a given size threshold (e.g., files less than256K bytes) could be stored in the SSD 118 directly along with the filesystem metadata.

Once stored, the bridge components 112 may expose file system 210 toclients through file system protocols, such as NFS mount point 212.Further, the bridge components 112 may include processes for performingNFS operations requested by clients.

Further, the secondary storage server 110 may include a ticket service222. The ticket service 222 is an in-memory distributed lock managerthat issues locks (“tickets”) to requesting nodes. In one embodiment,nodes in the cluster elect a “leader” ticket service 222 that issuestickets for entities of the file system 210. Further, the ticketservices 222 executing on the remaining nodes are “slave” ticketservices 222. The leader ticket service 222 issues a ticket to arequesting node (or queues the request). A ticket provides a node-levellock on a file system object such as a file or directory. A node thatholds a ticket on a file has access to that entity. When the nodeacquires a ticket from the leader ticket service 222, the leader ticketservice 222 pins the ticket. While a ticket is pinned, other processescannot obtain the ticket. When the node finishes performing a givenoperation, the node unpins the ticket. The corresponding slave ticketservice 222 caches the ticket until requested by the leader ticketservice 222 (e.g., when another node requests the ticket).

Further, the ticket may provide either shared or exclusive access. Forinstance, a node 110 may request an exclusive ticket to files involvedin a write operation. In contrast, a shared ticket may be issued tomultiple nodes, allowing multiple read operations to occur concurrently.

The bridge components 112 may include a process-wide (or “local”) lockservice 224. The process-wide lock service 224 issues a lock to filesystem objects touched by an operation performed by the node. That is,if a node has a process-wide lock on a set of inodes participating in afile system operation, then other processes on the node 110 areprevented from accessing that set of inodes until the operation iscomplete, and the local process locks are released. Like the tickets (ornode-level) locks, locks issued by the process-wide lock service 224 canbe shared or exclusive.

Files and directories in the file system 210 are each associated with aninode 228. As known, an inode is a data structure that stores filesystem attributes and metadata describing a file or directory. Forexample, an inode 228 for a file may include information such as a filename, file permissions, a date the file was last modified, etc. In oneembodiment, the bridge components 112 may add an update intent in inodes228 touched by a given file system operation.

An update intent provides information about an operation to be performedon the file system object corresponding to a given inode 228. Prior toinitiating a file system operation, the bridge components 112 insert anupdate intent into the inode 228 of each file system object that will bemodified during the operation. After the bridge process modifies a filesystem object, the bridge components 112 remove the update intent fromthe corresponding inodes 228. Doing so allows other nodes that accessthe entity to detect whether a node had failed while performing anoperation. More specifically, if a node fails (or a bridge component 112fails) while performing a file system operation that modifies multiplefile system objects (e.g., an NFS rename), some of the inodes 228participating in the operation will have an update intent related to theinterrupted operation. When bridge encounters an inode with a “stale”update intent (typically as part of performing a current file systemoperation that touches that inode), the bridge process either completesor aborts the interrupted operation, depending on the progress of thatoperation when the previous node failed. Further, in one embodiment, abackground process may identify inodes 228 that have an update intentfrom incomplete operations.

FIG. 3 illustrates an inode 300 for objects in a distributed filesystem, according to one embodiment. As shown, the inode 300 includes aninode number 305, file attributes 310, and an update intent 315. Theinode number 305 provides a distinct identifier for each object in thefile system. File attributes 310 contain details about the file,including file permissions, ownership, size, location of data blocks ondisk, etc.

In one embodiment, update intent 315 stores information about a pendingoperation to be performed on the file system object corresponding toinode 300. A node adds an update intent 315 in an inode 300 of a filesystem entity that the node intends to modify. For example, assume aclient sends a NFS delete operation request to delete a file “yyy”located in a directory “c”. In response, the bridge process obtains anode-level ticket and a process lock on the inodes of these entities.Once obtained, the bridge process inserts an update intent 315 in theinode 300 of the of the directory “c” and in the inode of the file“yyy”.

In one embodiment, the update intent 315 includes an update ID 316, anintended action 317, and an entity list 319. The update ID 316 providesa distinct identifier for each file system transaction that touchesmultiple inodes. Further, the bridge process uses the update ID 316 todistinguish one file system transaction from another.

The intended action 317 specifies an operation performed as part of acommon transaction. Continuing the previous example, the intended action317 in the update intent 315 for file “yyy” and directory “c” is adelete operation on file “yyy”.

Further, the entity list 319 includes each inode participating in thetransaction identified by the update ID 316. Continuing the previousexample, the entity list 319 for the delete operation may include theinode number 305 of the inodes for directory “c” and file “yyy.” Inaddition, the entity list 319 may specify an order in which the intendedaction should be performed. For example, assume A is an inode for adirectory where a file is being created and B is an inode for that file.If an operation occurs by creating B and inserting an update intent in Band then storing an update intent in A. In this situation, if the nodecrashes prior to storing the update intent in A, nothing in the entirefile system would refer to B, thus orphaning B. Therefore a transactionis ordered by inserting the update intent in A first and then into B.Inserting the update intent in A first and B next ensures that if thenode crashes prior to inserting the update intent in B, no suchorphaning would occur. Conversely, assume that B were being deleted fromA. In such a case, the sequence would be to first store the updateintent in B and then store the update intent in A. Therefore, if thenode crashes before inserting the update intent in A, B would not beorphaned (because A would still refer to B).

FIG. 4 illustrates a method 400 for obtaining locks on file systemobjects modified during a transaction, according to one embodiment. Asstated, prior to performing a file system operation, a bridge processexecuting on a node acquires a node-level ticket and a process-wide lockon each file system object modified by the file system operation.

As shown, method 400 begins at step 405, where a bridge process receivesa request from a client to perform an operation. The request mayreference a NFS file handle, such as a file handle for a directory. Inturn, the bridge process is able to identify the inode of the filecorresponding to the file handle. For example, assume that the nodereceives a request to rename a file named “yyy” to “zzz”. The requestmay specify file handles for a source directory (i.e., the handle of thedirectory containing the file “yyy”), a file handle of a destination(i.e., a handle to where the renamed file “zzz” will be located), andthe file “yyy”. At step 410, the bridge process identifies file systemobjects modified by the operation.

At step 415, the bridge process requests, from the distributed ticketservice an exclusive ticket for the file system objects identified atstep 405. Continuing the previous example, the node requests tickets forexclusive access for the inode of the source directory, the inode of thedestination directory, and the inode of the file being renamed. In oneembodiment, the ticket services queues each request by the node for therespective entity. If the request of the node is at the front of thequeue, the ticket service issues the respective ticket to the node.

At step 420, the ticket service determines whether requested tickets arecurrently being held by other nodes. If so, then at step 425, the slaveticket service 222 corresponding to the requesting node waits until theheld tickets are released by the nodes holding the tickets. Otherwise,if the requested tickets are not currently being held by other nodes,then at step 430, the node receives the tickets from the ticket service.The bridge process pins the tickets. While a given ticket is pinned to aprocess, the leader ticket service cannot take away the ticket, whichallows the bridge process to assume that it owns the tickets and hascomplete access to the inodes. In this case, the node receives ticketsfor exclusive access to the inodes.

At step 435, the bridge process requests a process-wide lock for each ofthe file system objects from the process-wide lock service executing onthe node performing the requested file system operation. As stated,process-wide locks ensure that processes running on one node do not haveaccess to the locked objects while the bridge process is performing therequested operation. For example, in this case, the node requestsprocess-wide locks for the source directory, the destination directory,and the file “yyy”. At step 440, the bridge process performs theoperation. FIGS. 5 and 6 further illustrate examples of file systemoperations being performed. Once the operation is complete, the bridgeprocess unpins the tickets. The slave ticket service running on the nodecaches the tickets, which allows the elected leader ticket service toretrieve the tickets when requested by a remote node.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example system operation performed by a node in adistributed file system, according to one embodiment. Specifically, FIG.5 illustrates an example of a rename operation. As shown, inodes 501 ₁₋₃correspond to a source directory, destination directory, and thefilename “yyy,” respectively. In this example, inode numbers 505 ₁₋₃ ofeach respectively entity are 10, 11, and 12. The source directory anddestination directory correspond to different directories and thereforeare associated with separate inodes. Further, the file metadata 510 ₁₋₃each describe attributes of the entities (e.g., permissions, whether theentity is a file or directory, etc.).

Prior to performing the rename operation, the node inserts an updateintent 515 ₁₋₃ corresponding to the operation to each of the inodes 501₁₋₃. The update ID 516 for each of the inodes is 555. The entity list519 ₁₋₃ specifies that the entities with inode numbers 505 ₁₋₃ will bemodified by the intended rename operation.

The bridge process modifies each entity according to the renameoperation. After modifying a given entity or inode, the bridge processremoves the update intent 515 from the corresponding inode 501.Therefore, if the bridge (or node) fails while performing thistransaction, another node may be able to complete or abort the intendedoperation after detecting that the update intent 515 still present inany of the inodes 501 ₁₋₃.

Further, to ensure a consistent file system, the node may modifyentities in a particular order. For example, in a create operation wherea file is created in a particular directory, the node may update thedirectory prior to associating the new file with the directory. Asanother example, in a delete operation where a file is deleted from aparticular directory, the inode for the file is deleted first.

FIG. 6 illustrates a method 600 for atomically performing file systemoperations in a distributed file system, according to one embodiment. Asstated, a bridge process executing on a node may perform NFS operationsin response to requests from clients. Of course, the distributed filesystem may use a variety of other file system protocols. Assume that thebridge process performing a given operation obtained a node-level ticketand a process-wide lock on each of the file system entities beingmodified by the operation.

Method 600 begins at step 605, where the bridge process generates anupdate intent for each inode participating in the transaction. Further,at step 610, the node inserts the update intent in each inode. Steps 605and 610 act as a prepare phase for the transaction.

At step 620, the bridge process modifies the entity based on the updateintent of the associated inode. After the bridge process modifies theentity, at step 625, the node removes the update intent from the inode.Steps 620 and 625 act as a commit phase for the transaction.

FIG. 7 illustrates a method 700 for committing or aborting an incompletetransaction, according to one embodiment. In some instances, the bridgeprocess (or node) may fail while performing a transaction that modifiesmultiple file system objects. For example, assume that the nodeperforming the rename operation discussed above fails after completingthe update on the inode of the source directory. That is, the bridgeprocess has not yet modified the entities corresponding to thedestination directory and file “yyy”. In such a case, the inodes of thedestination directory and the file “yyy” still store an update intentcorresponding to the rename operation. During normal execution in thedistributed secondary storage cluster, another node may access either ofthe inodes for the destination directory or the file, e.g., to perform afile system operation that touches these inodes. If the bridge processof that node detects that one of the inodes for a current operation andstores an update intent, then the current operation is aborted. Thebridge process aborts and releases the locks on the file system objectsto be modified in the operation. The bridge process may send the inodesto a “fixer” process executing on the node that either completes oraborts the prior operation depending on the state of the inodes involvedin that operation.

Method 700 begins at step 705, where the node evaluates the updateintent in the inode). Assume, for this discussion, that when the bridgecomponents 112 initiate an operation and identifies a “stale” updateintent in an inode participating in that transaction, the bridgecomponent 112 sends the metadata to the fixer process. The fixer processdetermines the update ID, the operation that was to be performed, and asequence of inodes included in the operation. Continuing the previousexample, assume that the current entity corresponds to the entity withinode 501 ₂ with inode number 11 from FIG. 5. The fixer processidentifies that the other file system objects have inode numbers of 10and 12.

At step 710, the fixer process accesses the other entities associatedwith the update. The fixer process requests a node-level ticket from theticket service for each entity in the list of entities in the node witha “stale” update intent. After acquiring the tickets, the fixer processalso requests process-wide locks for the same entities.

At step 715, the fixer process determines which inodes do not have anupdate intent relative to the inode with the stale update operation. Inthis case, the entity with inode number 10 (i.e., the source directoryfile handler) does not have an update intent. At step 720, the fixerprocess determines whether the entities without an update intent comebefore or after the inode with the stale update intent. The absence ofan update intent in a preceding inode indicates that the previous nodehad already finalized the update to the entity referenced by that inode.In contrast, the absence of an update intent in a succeeding entityimplies that the node had failed while preparing for the operation.

If the inode or inodes without an update intent precede the currententity in sequence, then at step 725, the node completes the operationspecified in the update intent. That is, because the previous node hadalready completed modifying the entities, the fixer process should rollforward with the rest of the operation specified in the update metadata.However, if the inodes without an update intent come after the currententity in sequence, then at step 730, the fixer process aborts theintended operation by removing the update intent from the inodesfollowing the inode with the “stale” update intent. Continuing theprevious example, the inode for the source directory no longer has anupdate intent. Because the source directory precedes the current entity(i.e., the destination directory) in sequence, the fixer processcompletes the rename operation.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example secondary storage server 800 configured toallocate VIP addresses among other secondary storage servers in adistributed system, according to one embodiment. As shown, computingsystem 800 includes, without limitation, a central processing unit (CPU)805, a network interface 815, a memory 820, and storage 830, eachconnected to a bus 817. Server 800 may also include an I/O deviceinterface 810 connecting I/O devices 812 (e.g., keyboard, display andmouse devices) to the computing system 800. Further, in context of thisdisclosure, the computing elements shown in computing system 800 maycorrespond to a physical computing system (e.g., a system in a datacenter) or may be a virtual computing instance executing within acomputing cloud.

CPU 805 retrieves and executes programming instructions stored in memory820 as well as stores and retrieves application data residing in thestorage 830. The bus 817 is used to transmit programming instructionsand application data between CPU 805, I/O devices interface 810, storage830, network interface 815, and memory 820. Note, CPU 805 is included tobe representative of a single CPU, multiple CPUs, a single CPU havingmultiple processing cores, and the like. Memory 820 is generallyincluded to be representative of a random access memory. Storage 830 maybe a disk drive storage device. Although shown as a single unit, storage830 may be a combination of fixed and/or removable storage devices, suchas fixed disc drives, removable memory cards, or optical storage,network attached storage (NAS), or a storage area-network (SAN).

Illustratively, memory 820 includes bridge components 824, and datagathering components 826. The bridge components 824 provide a filesystem architecture for the distributed secondary storage system. Thebridge components 824 may perform operations on the file system inresponse to NFS requests sent by clients. The data gathering components826 include modules that allow the secondary storage server 800 tocommunicate with primary storage servers and retrieve copies of datafrom the primary storage servers.

The memory 820 further includes, without limitation, a file system 825,a ticket service 826, and a process-wide lock service 827. The filesystem 825 collaborates with the file systems of other secondary storageservers in the cluster to form a distributed system used to store backupdata from the primary storage services. The bridge components 824 exposethe file system 825 to clients through file system protocols, such asNFS, SMB, CIFS, and iSCSI. The ticket service 826 is an in-memorydistributed lock manager that issues tickets to requesting nodes. Thetickets provide a node-level lock to entities of the file system 825.The process-wide lock service 827 issues process-wide locks for anentity that is specific to an operation performed by the secondarystorage system 800. That is, process wide locks are local in scope tothe secondary storage system 800. Both the tickets and the process-widelocks may grant either shared or exclusive access to a particularentity.

The storage 830 includes a node identifier 832. The node identifier 220is a distinct value that may be based on the MAC address of thesecondary storage server 110. The inodes 834 are data structures for thefile and directory entities that store metadata describing file systemattributes for each entity. Further, when performing a given operationon an entity, an inode 834 may store an update intent describing theupdate to be performed.

Aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied as a system, method orcomputer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the present disclosuremay take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirelysoftware embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code,etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that mayall generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or“system.” Furthermore, aspects of the present disclosure may take theform of a computer program product embodied in one or more computerreadable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodiedthereon.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signalmedium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readablestorage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic,magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system,apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Morespecific examples a computer readable storage medium include: anelectrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computerdiskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory(ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flashmemory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory(CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or anysuitable combination of the foregoing. In the current context, acomputer readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that cancontain, or store a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus or device.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality and operation of possible implementations ofsystems, methods and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present disclosure. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment or portionof code, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. Each block of the block diagrams and/orflowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the blockdiagrams and/or flowchart illustrations can be implemented byspecial-purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware andcomputer instructions.

The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has beendescribed with reference to specific embodiments. However, theillustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit the disclosure to the precise forms disclosed. Many modificationsand variations are possible in view of the above teachings. Theembodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the disclosure and its practical applications, to therebyenable others skilled in the art to best utilize the disclosure andvarious embodiments with various modifications as may be suited to theparticular use contemplated.

While the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the presentdisclosure, other and further embodiments of the disclosure may bedevised without departing from the basic scope thereof, and the scopethereof is determined by the claims that follow.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer implemented method, comprising: inresponse to a request to perform a file system operation, identifying aset of file system objects to be accessed in performing the file systemoperation, wherein each file system object of the set of file systemobjects is associated with a corresponding file system data structure ina set of file system data structures, wherein identifying the set offile system objects to be accessed in performing the file systemoperation includes determining whether any file system data structureincluded in the set of file system data structures includes a previousupdate intent associated with a previous file system operation; for therequested file system operation, storing a corresponding update intentin each file system data structure in the set of file system datastructures, wherein the corresponding update intent specifies an orderlist of the file system data structures in the set of file system datastructures; performing a part of the file system operation, wherein thepart of the file system operation is associated with the file systemdata structure corresponding to a selected position in the order list;and in response to determining that the part of the file systemoperation has been successfully completed for the file system datastructure in the selected position in the order list, removing thecorresponding update intent from the file system data structurecorresponding to the selected position in the order list.
 2. Thecomputer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the set of file systemobjects includes a directory.
 3. The computer implemented method ofclaim 1, wherein the set of file system objects includes a file.
 4. Thecomputer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the set of file systemdata structures includes inodes.
 5. The computer implemented method ofclaim 1, further comprising in response to a determination that the setof file system data structures includes the previous update intentassociated with the previous file system operation, determining whetherto complete or abandon an incomplete file system operation.
 6. Thecomputer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the determination ofwhether to complete or abandon the incomplete file system operation isbased at least in part on which file system data structure of a secondset of file system data structures identified by the previous updateintent includes the previous update intent associated with the previousfile system operation.
 7. The computer implemented method of claim 5,wherein in response to a determination to abandon the incomplete filesystem operation, removing the previous update intent associated withthe previous file system operation from a second set of file system datastructures associated with the previous update intent.
 8. The computerimplemented method of claim 5, wherein in response to a determination tocomplete the incomplete file system operation, completing each part ofthe previous file system operation corresponding to each file systemdata structure of a second set of file system data structures thatincludes the previous update intent.
 9. The computer implemented methodof claim 8, further comprising removing the previous update intent fromeach file system data structure of the second set of file system datastructures after completion of a corresponding part of the previous filesystem operation.
 10. The computer implemented method of claim 1,wherein performing the part of the file system operation includesmodifying the order list.
 11. The computer implemented method of claim1, wherein prior to storing the corresponding update intent in each filesystem data structure in the set of file system data structures,obtaining a node-specific lock and a process-specific lock on each filesystem data structure in the set of file system data structures to bemodified.
 12. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein themethod is performed using a distributed file system.
 13. The computerimplemented method of claim 12, wherein the distributed file system isexposed to a client as an NFS (Network File System), SMB (Server MessageBlock), or CIFS (Common Internet File System) mount point, and therequested file system operation is an NFS, SMB, or CIFS operation sentfrom the client to a node of the distributed file system.
 14. A system,comprising: a processor configured to: in response to a request toperform a file system operation, identify a set of file system objectsto be accessed in performing the file system operation, wherein eachfile system object of the set of file system objects is associated witha corresponding file system data structure in a set of file system datastructures, wherein the processor is configured to identify the set offile system objects to be accessed in performing the file systemoperation including by being configured to determine whether any filesystem data structure included in the set of file system data structuresincludes a previous update intent associated with a previous file systemoperation; for the requested file system operation, store acorresponding update intent in each file system data structure in theset of file system data structures, wherein the corresponding updateintent specifies an order list of the file system data structures in theset of file system data structures; perform a part of the file systemoperation, wherein the part of the file system operation is associatedwith the file system data structure corresponding to a selected positionin the order list; and in response to determining that the part of thefile system operation has been successfully completed for the filesystem data structure in the selected position in the order list, removethe corresponding update intent from the file system data structurecorresponding to the selected position in the order list; and a memorycoupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor withinstructions.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein the processor isfurther configured to: in response to a determination that the set offile system data structures includes the previous update intentassociated with the previous file system operation, determine whether tocomplete or abandon an incomplete file system operation.
 16. The systemof claim 15, wherein the determination of whether to complete or abandonthe incomplete file system operation is based at least part on whichfile system data structure of a second set of file system datastructures includes the previous update intent associated with theprevious file system operation.
 17. The system of claim 14, wherein thesystem is included in a distributed file system.
 18. A computer programproduct, the computer program product being embodied in a non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructionsfor: in response to a request to perform a file system operation,identifying a set of file system objects to be accessed in performingthe file system operation, wherein each file system object of the set offile system objects is associated with a corresponding file system datastructure in a set of file system data structures, wherein identifyingthe set of file system objects to be accessed in performing the filesystem operation includes determining whether any file system datastructure included in the set of file system data structures includes aprevious update intent associated with a previous file system operation;for the requested file system operation, storing a corresponding updateintent in each file system data structure in the set of file system datastructures, wherein the corresponding update intent specifies an orderlist of the file system data structures in the set of file system datastructures; performing a part of the file system operation, wherein thepart of the file system operation is associated with the file systemdata structure corresponding to a selected position in the order list;and in response to determining that the part of the file systemoperation has been successfully completed for the file system datastructure in the selected position in the order list, removing thecorresponding update intent from the file system data structurecorresponding to the selected position in the order list.